Absidee of Lys
Absidee of Lys is a character in Book 2. She is the bastard daughter of Magister Lysario, one of the richest men in the Free Cities, though she herself is not living by his side, but in Dorne, where she serves as the spymistress at the court of Princess Meria Martell. A mysterious person, Absidee is hard to read and even harder to deal with, suffering from bouts of paranoia and mood swings that interchange with moments of brilliant thinking. Background Absidee was born as the daughter of Magister Lysario of Norvos and a Lysene dancer, conceived during a night of passion between the two. It should remain their only night together and Absidee and her mother grew up alone, with Lysario leaving them in bitter poverty. Growing up on the harsh streets of Lys, Absidee had few friends in her childhood. One of them was a Red Priest, whose name she never learned of, as well as his son, Malaerys, a boy in her age. The two would entertain the girl with stories of the world and the dream the Faith of R'hllor had for it. Absidee grew up yearning for this world to come true. Her life changed drastically when she was nine years old. Staying outside for longer than she was supposed to, she fell into the hands of ruthless slavers, who took the girl away from her home. Making her a slave, she was eventually sold to a brothel, where she learned the arts of Lysene courtesans. She also learned something more valuable, namely that secrets were often worth more than gold. And secrets she gathered, specializing in extracting them from her customers in their moments of weakness. Once knowing enough, having grown powerful in her own right despite her low status, Absidee used her secrets to bribe the right people, assuring herself to be released to freedom. She returned home after many years, only to find her mother seriously ill. Though the Red Priest was tending to her, trying to save her, she soon passed away. Absidee herself was changed ever since and she never speaks about the full events that led to her mothers death. Vengeful for the many years of torment and enslavement, Absidee made it her goal to ruin the city of Lys all by herself. Gaining the loyalty of slaves, she gathered knowledge and secrets to influence the right people, causing a massive part of the slave trade of Lys to downright collapse. She was aided by the Valyrian Hegemony, if involuntarily, as their attempts to conquer Lys at the same time put the city into a near bankruptcy. This deed gained Absidee fame and fear throughout the entire Free Cities, at least for those that were influential enough to know of her deeds. She would have likely died to the vengeful Lysene magisters, though the man who saved her was, ironically, none other than her own father. Magister Lysario, hearing of her reputation and skills, came to bring her to Norvos, where she was to live with him, to assist him with his own business. It was with Lysario that she perfected her skill. However, for reasons unknown she got into a dispite with her father, whom she eventually left behind. Leaving the Free Cities, who had become a dangerous place for her without his protection, she travelled to Dorne, where she managed to impress the ruling princess of the land, Meria Martell. Seeing her abilities, Meria granted her the spot as Spymistress and in the years to follow, Absidee has proven to be invaluable to her. Book 2 Fires Far On the day that Aegon Targaryen's declaration of war reaches Sunspear, Absidee is not in the castle. Instead, she is already making preparations for the war to come, by meeting with her old friend and informant Myriah Watermont, to discuss the options they have. Having made preparations for this event for weeks by now, Absidee has gotten into contact with Dagar Manwoody, whom she enlisted to help her finding the scholar Larryl Callace, a man she deems capable of preparing Dorne to fight against dragons. The meeting between the two women is interrupted by Ysilla Sand, who travelled to the brothel to search for her brother, Theodan. Initially hostile to the young woman, Absidee slowly realizes what a chance this offers to her. Previously, she wanted to give the task of making contact with Dagar to her underlings, the sellswords Jenelyne and Allar, but with Ysilla, she now has someone with a personal interest in keeping Dorne save. She continues to explain her plan to the young woman, who ends up agreeing to help her. In return, Ysilla informs her of the Sandstorm's attack on Sunspear. Sensing the danger of this, Absidee decides to travel back to the castle before it is put on lockdown. However, before leaving she implores Ysilla to meet up with her and Princess Meria soon afterwards. This meeting happens later on the same day, in the presence of Meria, her son Nymor and her granddaughter Deria, as well as Sarina Manwoody. There, Absidee explains to Ysilla and Theodan that thex are supposed to find Larryl with the help of Dagar Manwoody and bring him back to Dorne.Ysilla will travel in utter secrecy, accompanied only by Jenelyne and Allar, albeit ultimately, Absidee has to yield to Theodan, who declares that he will accompany his sister as well. Appearance Absidee, being half a Lysene, has the pale blonde hair that is common with people from that city. Having a certain bit of Freehold blood in her veins, she is pale and has a slender frame. While being in her thirties, she is a great beauty and could easily pass for a woman a decade younger. Most of the time, she wears her hair open, though she loves jewelry, placing thin golden and silver chains in her hair. She has pale blue eyes, from her father, which gives her a cold and intimidating look. Usually dressing in blue and golden, showing a lot of cleavage and otherwise bringing out her beauty the best, Absidee is very skilled at remaining unseen when she prefers it. As such, she can look like a completely different person when out in the streets, clad in simple rugs, hiding her hair and unusual features whenever it suits her the best. Personality Absidee is very difficult to deal with as a person. Enigmatic, she keeps her distance from others and doesn't make new friendships easily. Instead, she is skilled at using people, something that obviously most consider to be very unsettling. She has a percing, inquisitive streak to her, though her usual reaction when presented with a new situation is distrust, bordering on paranoia, as she sees enemies even where there are none. Very skilled at uncovering the secrets of others, she is ruthless enough to use these for her own gain. However, Absidee is also suffering from severe mood swings. Her personality, usually cold and distant, can become jovial at the most inappropriate moments, as she tends to grin or chuckle in situations where others wouldn't, further creeping out those around her. Relationships Meria Martell Absidee's loyalty to Meria has, so far, been without question. While her difficult personality tends to clash with most others, Meria sees things similar to her and is hard to be offended by the traits Absidee displays so readily. While friendship would be a bit too much, they bond out of mutual respect and Absidee does admit that Meria is a lot like her, in certain ways, something she definitely appreciates. Myriah Watermont While they began as business partners, with Myriah selling her secrets to Absidee, their bond has since developed. Absidee began to actually trust Myriah after having been convinced of her intentions, a rare thing for her. As such, the two women began to spend time together even outside of their work, becoming actual friends in the process. In Sunspear, Myriah remains the person closest to Absidee and her most important ally. Ysilla Sand Ysilla has a natural distrust towards anything involving the dreaded spymistress, something she is not ashamed to admit. However, Absidee's opinion on Ysilla is a bit more complicated. Initially distrustful towards the young woman for interrupting her meeting, she came to consider her more valuable than she initially thought. As such, while she did not end up fully trusting her, she was willing to involve her in her plans, even sharing some with her. Appearances Category:Characters Category:Book 2 Characters Category:House Martell Category:Characters from Essos Category:Lysene Category:Highborn Category:Bastards